In fierce battles with Syrian troops, Al Qaeda’s al-Nusra front is spearheading the rebels’ advance on two Syrian army chemical weapons depots - at the Al-Safira base in the north and the Dumeir facility 40 km northeast of Damascus. Tuesday, April 2, Israel’s top security officials were on the Golan to inspect the IDF Golan border units’ state of readiness. On his first visit to the territory as defense minister, Moshe Yaalon said Israel would prevent the proliferation of weapons that “could threaten us.”

The West has initiated an arms embargo against the Syrian rebels fighting Bashar Assad since discovering that some of the weapons are being resold to al Qaeda for its conquest of southern Syrian and takeover of positions on the Jordanian and Israel borders and Yarmuk River. This policy reversal was disclosed by French President Francois Hollande Friday, March 29. debkafile: Alarm over the Nusra Front’s territorial gains now tops concerns over chemical warfare in the deliberations of the joint US-Israeli, US-Jordanian and US-Turkish command centers. 

The Al Musanna Brigade of al Qaeda’s Syrian arm, Jabhat al-Nusra, captured the highly strategic intersection of the Syrian, Israeli and Jordan borders, just east of the Golan, on Passover Eve, Monday, March 25, debkafile reports exclusively. The jihadists have also seized Wadi ar-Raqqad which marks the Golan’s eastern boundary and is one of Israel’s water sources. Next door, Iraqi Al Qaeda is preparing to push trucks loaded with Chlorine gas-CI trucks into Syria for the jihadists to use against Assad’s forces.

debkafile reports hundreds of UN Disengagement and Observers Force (UNDOF) soldiers - Indian, Austrian and Filipino - in trucks and APCs in full flight from the Syrian side of Golan into Israel early Monday, March 11. They were urged to leave by their commanders, who said “We can no longer vouch for your safety.” Syrian rebel Islamists are feared vying with Hizballah to seize control of the abandoned 8-sq.km Syrian-Israel separation zone while the IDF is massing reinforcements to keep them out.

A new US-led contingency headquarters for joint US, Israeli, Jordanian and Turkish operations inside Syria will go into action if any or all these allies should come under chemical or biological attack. This was the upshot of the talks US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel held with visiting Israeli defense Minister Ehud Barak at the Pentagon Tuesday, March 5. Hagel forecast imminent chemical warfare that would be kicked off by  Al Qaeda-linked militias to further their territorial expansion plans and quickly spill over Syria's borders..

John Kerry begins his stint as US Secretary of State with the recognition that there is only one way to prevent Islamist groups from taking over the Syrian rebel movement while also preserving US influence in the rebel camp: and that is by working with the Russian plan for Syria. debkafile reveals that this plan is based on drawing armistice lines for dividing Syria up into sectors controlled variously by Syrian opposition groups and Assad loyalists. Russia and America will jointly oversee those sectors.

Bashar Assad has evacuated most of the troops of his 5th Army Division from their permanent bases on the Golan opposite Israeli forces and transferred them along with their artillery to Damascus, debkafile’s military sources report. This step was intended by Assad to reinforce the defense of his capital, while at the same time providing the al Qaeda-linked fighters in rebel ranks direct access to the Israel border. In no time, the jihadists are expected to turn their guns and missiles on Israel.

The Syrian chemical warfare threat took an epic turn Saturday, Dec. 22 with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s statement that “Syria has “consolidated its chemical weapons in one or two locations… and they are under control.”  Russian military advisers training Syria’s military,” he said, “have kept close watch over its chemical arsenal.” debkafile: This was Moscow’s assurance to Washington that Russia had taken care of the danger of Syria’s WMD falling into Islamist terrorist hands, which came close Friday with the rebel assault on al-Safira.

Since the US designated Jabhat al-Musra a foreign terrorist organization Tuesday, Dec. 11, its fighters have been advancing rapidly toward the Syrian army’s main chemical weapons store and chemical-tipped missiles at Al Safira. Assad fired Scuds in an effort to stop their advance. debkafile: If the rebels, spearheaded by the Islamist terrorists, break into the base and lay hands on chemical weapons and missiles, the US may have to mount an air strike against the rebels - instead of Assad’s army.